The Deacon's Bench
It has to be the most conspicuously religious resignation letter President Obama has received, coming from a high-profile Catholic in his administration:
Douglas Kmiec, U.S. Ambassador to Malta, plans to resign from his post on August 15. Kmiec’s resignation follows the release of a State Department report which criticized him for a number of alleged infractions, including spending, “an inordinate amount of time reviewing his writings, speeches, and other initiatives.”
In a letter addressed to President Obama, dated April 13, Kmiec wrote, “With the highest respect for your leadership and with some understanding of the difficulty and complexity of the challenges that you and Secretary Clinton face each day, I ask that you accept my resignation effective on the feast of the Assumption, 2011.”
While his resignation does follow criticism from the State Department, Kmiec expressed in a statement to the people of Malta that his resignation is completely voluntary: “I know it is popular to think that all resignations are forced or motivated by some hidden reason. Anyone who has ever played cards with me knows I cannot keep the happiness of an Ace quiet anymore than I can disguise the disappointment of an unneeded or disappointing deuce. My resignation is not a product of force unless one means by force – the force of principle.”
Kmiec became a lightning rod for criticism after this former member of the Reagan Administration supported Barack Obama for president in 2008 — and was later denied communion over it. He wrote about that experience here. (The priest who did it was later reprimanded by Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony.)
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